Students unveil new vision for Dilmun Hill organic teaching farm

By Jessica Li '01

Cornell students unveiled such a vision earlier this month for Dilmun Hill, an environmentally landscaped, student-run farm sponsored by the Department of Fruit and Vegetable Science.

Cornell seniors Heather Clark and Richard Kennedy formulated the plan, which includes renovating a barn into either student housing or an environmental center. This spring, the students will plant agro-forestry plots and a garden featuring plants grown through organic agricultural methods as well as display sculptures from art students using recycled materials.

Within a year, a children's garden may be part of the project, to be called Exploratory Garden. Said Clark, "We see this as a center for learning about the environment through doing."

This newer part of the Dilmun Hill student farm, adjacent to the Cornell Orchards on Route 366, is a site once occupied by the house of Mary E. Cornell, university founder Ezra Cornell's granddaughter, in the late 19th century. At the turn of the 20th century, the property was purchased by the Blair family, who had a barn built on the site. In 1908, the Blairs sold the property to Cornell, and the university's animal science department used it for about 70 years.

For the last few decades, the barn has been used for storage. The house on the property, built in the 1870s, was torn down in the late 1980s. Last year, Ronnie Coffman, research dean of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, gave the barn and land to the student farm project. "The Blair barn inspired the vision-planning process," said Clark.

Kennedy and Clark envision a renovated barn that might serve as a student living center one day, much like program houses on campus, that will embrace teaching about the environment and its importance to agriculture. Barn renovation planning also begins this spring.

Future plans include the development and construction of an artificial wetland on the farm, as part of a university agroforestry course. With a variety of projects being planned on Dilmun Hill, Kennedy said, it will soon be "full of food and full of education."